Pulse of The People: It's in the Bill of Rights

In 1776, after we declared our independence from a tyrannical ruler and his puppet Legislature we set about forming a Constitution which guaranteed limited government and individual rights which could not be taken by any government, federal or of the states. While the original Constitution clearly outlined the powers which the government was limited to, and the supporters spoke of these limitations in publications in the form of the federalist papers, passage was not guaranteed as many, including a farmer named Thomas Jefferson, thought the rights of individuals were not clearly articulated. To secure passage the founding fathers agreed to include the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. In so doing we were handed a document which limited the power of government over individuals and also articulated their individual rights. When a woman asked Benjamin Franklin, "what manner of government have you given us" his reply was "a republic madam, if you choose to keep it."

When making a list we often put first the things which we think are the most important and I believe the Bill of Rights is no different. First we declared our right to practice our religion of choice, free speech and a free press and the right to assemble and petition our government. Second, we recognized that a militia was necessary and "the right to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." As these individual rights were necessary to protect our God given rights of liberty and justice they conveyed this by the ninth and tenth amendments which declared the enumeration of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage the others and also that the powers not delegated are reserved "to the people." I believe that the founding fathers were saying to us that to secure each right of the individual each is equally important and that to deny one puts at risk all the others.

In the discussion of limiting rights under the Second Amendment there are those that would say that the right is that of a militia only, or that the limitations on certain long guns are a "common sense" restriction on firearms which are more powerful than those of that time. I say, that is bunk. How far would the patriots have gotten without their firearms? My right to protect myself, my property, my family, my religion and my free speech stands alone, an individual right. This right allows me, and us, to protect not only against the individual, but against government itself. Let us remember that it was an unjust government which we were declaring our independence from. Even if it were limited to a militia, the militia of the time wasn't a uniformed and centrally controlled guard or reserve unit but was a collection of men from a community who were controlled, not by a far off and distant government in Albany or Washington, but by the civil leaders of their home town. The long guns and side arms they carried were ones they had in their homes. More importantly, they were of the same strength and ability as the ones carried by the standing army. The power to speak out and protect our communities and our rights from those invaders, foreign or domestic, individually and collectively, was reserved to us under our Constitution.

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The state Legislature, under the control of the governor, in the dead of night and with no public input or discussion, passed the strictest in the nation "common sense" gun legislation. Really? This legislation has no bearing on crime rates, or even the ability of a crazy to gun down unarmed innocent people. It has more to do with political capital for ambitious and pandering politicians. And so to trample your right to keep and bear a firearm the "king" has convened his minions to rubber stamp his proposal, in the dead of night, well outside the watchful eye of the citizenry and the press. To trample your Second Amendment rights he trampled your First Amendment rights among many others.

It is a famous quote speaking of government abuses in Nazi Germany which I paraphrase, first they came for others and I did nothing ... but then they came for me and there was no one to help. Today is the right to keep and bear arms, tomorrow is which part of the Constitution? While other "common sense" arguments are made about limiting individual firearms, it is all about the Constitution.